How edtech is transforming executive Education

BY MATTHEW LYNCH, tech Edvocate

Educational technology has been disrupting traditional instructional practices in executive education, and for good reason. Learning was once the exclusive domain of schools and universities, especially when it came to delivering executive education in business schools. That meant either taking a sabbatical from your job or choosing a B-school near you. You had to be physically present in the classroom. Edtech, however, is changing that approach by providing customization and interactive experiences for learners. Educational technology also delivers learning at lowered costs.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/edtech-transforming-executive-education/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=33760

Report: Scaling and Sustaining Competency-Based Education Competency-Based Education

By Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal
It’s no longer enough to simply begin the journey of competency-based education. Enough schools are trying to implement CBE that it’s time to write the second chapter by building on what is already known to work. That’s the idea behind a new report from CompetencyWorks, which lays out a course for scaling and sustaining K-12 CBE along four lines: equity, quality, meeting students where they are, and policy.  CompetencyWorks is a collaborative organization that promotes personalized, competency-based education in K-12 and higher education. The initiative is managed by iNACOL, a non-profit focused on K-12 competency-based, blended and online learning.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2017/11/02/report-scaling-and-sustaining-competency-based-education.aspx

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=33655

Do students buy into maker culture?

BY LAURA ASCIONE, eSchool News

Maker culture is going mainstream. The maker industry is projected to grow to more than $8 billion by 2020, and with the maker movement infiltrating classrooms, after-school clubs and homes, it’s no wonder. But where is the maker movement strongest? A new report from robotics and open-source hardware provider DFRobot aims to find out by analyzing DIY-labeled products hosted on Kickstarter.

Do students buy into maker culture?

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=33645

Universities should ban PowerPoint — It makes students stupid and professors boring

by Paul Ralph, The Conversation

Do you really believe that watching a lecturer read hundreds of PowerPoint slides is making you smarter? I asked this of a class of 105 computer science and software engineering students last semester. An article in The Conversation argued universities should ban PowerPoint because it makes students stupid and professors boring.

I agree entirely.

http://www.businessinsider.com/universities-should-ban-powerpoint-it-makes-students-stupid-and-professors-boring-2015-6

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=33635

Wyoming Department of Education releases Digital Learning Plan

By Kristine Galloway, Wyoming Tribune Eagle

State education officials are a step closer to revamping the delivery of education statewide. The Wyoming Department of Education recently released the 2017-2021 Digital Learning Plan. “This comprehensive five-year strategic plan was written around the importance of incorporating digital learning and education technology into the classroom and addresses the need for equitable access to educational opportunities for all students,” Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow said in a news release. The introduction of the plan imagines a new world of education, in which a student will have some traditional classes, some classes that are offered entirely online, and some taught in a classroom with students working at their own paces through the use of digital tools.

http://www.wyomingnews.com/news/wyoming-department-of-education-releases-digital-learning-plan/article_f16b8d66-a31e-11e6-9de9-13dc8b6b5612.html

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=20330

Survey: Students Think Schools Should Use Personal Data to Improve College Experience

By Leila Meyer, Campus Technology

Seventy-seven percent of college students think schools should do a better job of using their personal data to improve the college experience, according to a new survey from Ellucian. The company released the results of a survey on the same day as its new data analytics platform, Ellucian Analytics. The online survey was conducted by Wakefield Research from October 13 to 18 and included 1,000 United States college students. The key takeaway from the survey is that students already share vast amounts of personal data with their schools, and they expect those schools to use that data in ways that benefit them.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/10/31/survey-students-think-schools-should-use-personal-data-to-improve-college-experience.aspx

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=20302

6 ed tech products to note from Educause 2016

by Roger Riddell, Education Dive

From solutions for boosting cybersecurity to new accessibility components on familiar platforms, these solutions are worth a closer look. Between keynotes, panels and interviews, Education Dive took time to check out what Educause 2016’s close to 300 exhibitors had on display. From solutions for boosting cybersecurity to new accessibility components on familiar platforms, here are six products we saw worth noting.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/6-ed-tech-products-to-note-from-educause-2016/429723/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=20318

Continuously Improving Online Course Design using the Plan-Do-Study-Act Cycle

by Elizabeth A. Gazza, JOLT

Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) is a continuous improvement process that can be used to inform practice in online education. This article describes how the PDSA cycle was used to enhance a new online health policy course in an accelerated online Registered Nurse to-Bachelor of Science (RN-BS) program at one Southeastern University. A goal of course development and delivery was to ensure that students could access and understand all directions and guidelines included in the new online course.  Recommendations for course enhancement are useful to individuals who design and/or teach online courses and reflect use of data in the decision-making process.

http://jolt.merlot.org/Vol11no2/Gazza_0615.pdf

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14299

Universal Design in Online Education: Employing Organization Change

by Katherine J. Kirkpatrick, JOLT

With the rise in online education, universal design is an emerging trend aimed at providing available education opportunities to all students, accommodating for all disabilities. However, universal design in online education remains an ambiguous and lofty goal for an academic organization to undertake. This case analysis employs an organization change theoretical framework via archival document analysis to examine a failed universal design change initiative at a 1,500-student college. This analysis unpacks the complications inherent in the failed initiative via elucidation of the college’s actions comparatively with foundational tenets of organization change, particularly the diffusion of innovations model. Elicitations from this analysis include possibilities for future universal design change initiatives, as well as an overarching call for academic organizations to consider organization change tenets in organizational decision-making.

http://jolt.merlot.org/Vol11no2/Kirkpatrick_0615.pdf

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14296

What Do Current College Students Think about MOOCs?

by Andrew W. Cole and C. Erik Timmerman, JOLT

Faculty, administrators, and media outlets express a range of opinions about Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). As any adoption of MOOCs should ultimately be done to benefit students, this study examines current college students’ understandings of MOOCs. Thematic analysis on qualitative data reveal a pattern of student perceptions that MOOCs can contribute to lifelong learning but are inferior to traditional “for credit” college courses. Student attitudes toward MOOCs revolve around 6 primary themes: reliability, accessibility, content, learning, communication, and outcomes. As the themes identified in the current data mirror previously published MOOC commentaries in many ways, pedagogical discussion of MOOCs should move beyond polarized evaluations and incorporate student perspectives in further empirical investigation of MOOCs as a learning environment.

http://jolt.merlot.org/Vol11no2/Cole_0615.pdf

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14293

Online snow days get early trial run

by Kim McGuire, Star Tribune

With vivid memories of the Polar Vortex and its frigid wrath, administrators at Cathedral High School in St. Cloud decided earlier this year that students would work from home online the next time bad weather forced a snow day. To make sure students and teachers were prepared, a “practice” snow day was slated for Nov. 21. But Mother Nature had other plans, dumping nearly a foot of snow on the St. Cloud area on Monday and forcing ­Cathedral officials to do a real-life trial before their test run. “It was sort of ready or not,” Cathedral High School Principal Lynn Grewing said. “But we were ready, and we got everything posted online pretty early.”

http://www.startribune.com/local/282227521.html

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Will MOOCs be Flukes?

BY MARIA KONNIKOVA, New Yorker

MOOCs are a technology with potentially revolutionary implications for education, but without a precise plan for realizing that potential. One way of getting there could be for the leaders of the MOOC movement to look more closely at old methods, from when education was less massive, less open, and entirely offline.

http://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/moocs-failure-solutions

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/20DtdMP0rM4/

Six tips for classroom technology success

by eSchool News

An industry advisory panel of educators shares strategies to help teachers – regardless of their tenure – implement education technology in the classroom. The LEGO Education Advisory Panel (LEAP) advises LEGO Education, the education division within the LEGO group, on how to meet the needs of educators and students. The panel consists of 50 educators, across all levels of education, who are experienced with the trials and triumphs of using unconventional teaching tools in the classroom. Drawing from our experience using a wide gamut of education technology, we compiled the following list of tips and tricks to help teachers —regardless of their tenure —implement education technology in their own classroom.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2014/11/11/lego-technology-classroom-329/

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/3ohPFVuU3TY/

Microsoft improves its free online Office

by Ed Bott, ZD Net

How do you compete with rivals that are willing to give away a product comparable to yours? That’s Microsoft’s multi-billion dollar Office dilemma as it tries to compete with Google and its free Google Apps platform. For a generation raised on Gmail, Google Drive and the Google Docs family might be good enough for some potential customers to decide they don’t need the “real” Office after all. In a bid to raise the stakes, Google is making its free Quickoffice suite a standard feature of its latest Android distribution, KitKat. Meanwhile, Apple is stumbling, cutting features as it tries to make its iWork programs compatible across iPads and Macs. All of which explains why Microsoft is evolving its Office Web Apps at breakneck speed.

http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-improves-its-free-online-office-7000022911/

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New Internet Bug Bounty holds companies accountable, protects hackers

by Violet Blue, ZD Net

Hackers looking to make quick cash just got a new way to grease their bank accounts with the launch of HackerOne’s Internet Bug Bounty. Security high-hats from primary sponsors Microsoft and Facebook, along with volunteers from Etsy, Chrome and ISEC Partners calling themselves HackerOne today announced a bounty program trading cash for bugs in Open SSL, Python, Ruby, PHP, Rails, Perl and “the Internet,” among others. According to HackerOne’s Disclosure, the companies behind the program are not allowed special access or rights to the submitted bugs. Hackers can submit as anonymously as they prefer. Response Teams from affected companies and products are cautioned against taking punitive action against the hackers.

http://www.zdnet.com/new-internet-bug-bounty-holds-companies-accountable-protects-hackers-7000022904/

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/s7lEuEFnSMI/

Is Online Learning Transforming Education?

by Gabriel Sanchez, Huffington Post

“Brick and mortar schools will still exist, and the overwhelming majority of children will attend them, but the schools will be center of individualized learning, with engaging interactive content rather than a series of chalk-and-textbook, grade-delineated classrooms. At high school and potentially middle school, each child will have a computer to work at his or her own pace in customized programs; technology will deliver it to them in ways best suited to their individual needs and strengths.” Ron Packard addresses these important questions in his recent book Education Transformation. In particular, he highlights the specific ways in which technology can provide meaningful educational alternatives, especially for lower-income students in communities with struggling schools.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gabriel-sanchez-zinny/ron-packards-education-fo_b_4219682.html

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